Chapter 4
NOW
"He certainly doesn't waste any time, does he?" the Seer whispered gently by my side. There was a hint of a smile in her surprisingly playful tone.
the Seer had approached with Nathyrra in tow, sidling up beside me with an off-putting familiarity.
Nathyrra continued past us without a word in my direction. She approached Commander Imloth, who was observing the troops. She sidled up to him with a friendly nudge to his ribs as she said something with a gentle smile.
Valen sparred with two of the drow soldiers, his usual heavy flail replaced by a wooden replica held together by thick rope. His stance gave no hint to his earlier injury, healed fully by the Seer and her goddess.
He wore his usual emerald armour, cleaned of all evidence of his wound, red hair pulled away from his stern face. He spun away from an attacking wooden sword, moving with a speed that shouldn't have been possible, encumbered in heavy armour as he was. With a bestial snarl, he kicked the attacker square in the chest. As the drow fell back without a sound, another soldier immediately ran in to replace him.
'I'd love to see the Demon-Blooded Man and Daelan go blow-for-blow,' Enserric hummed in my head.
I felt the Seer watching me.
My stomach clenched uncomfortably before I spoke next.
"I hope you know I only did what I thought was right," I found myself saying.
I saw her slight nod in my peripheral.
Valen swung his flail and another drow hit the floor. This one required assistance to stand again, before being led away by a companion.
"It saddens me that we're still turning to our baser nature," she sighed. "But time will tell if you made the right choice."
Would Valen and Nathyrra forgive me?
They did from memory, but my reception from both of them had been a chillier one than expected. And when I did things the wrong way, they didn't always pan out like the game… I thought I'd been careful this time…
"I only hope Valen and Nathyrra can come to see it that way," I tilted my head in their direction.
"They will come to see who you are," she placed a comforting hand on my shoulder. I froze at her touch. Was there more to what she was saying, or was I being paranoid? She smiled as if sensing the source of my discomfort. "We all wear masks. Just be wary, the time will come where you will remove it and tear away your own skin." Her tone wasn't warning, just matter-of-fact. "Do not leave it that long."
Shit. She definitely knows more. She gave my shoulder a gentle squeeze before removing her hand.
I finally looked her in the eye, her features soft in a way the other drow's were not. She offered me a small warm smile, before leaving to attend to the soldier's felled by Valen's practice weapon.
Nathyrra watched me from Imloth's side, her eyes narrowed in contemplation.
I shook off my discomfort before approaching my new companions with a wave and a smile I didn't feel.
Time to stop procrastinating. We had places to be.
And I wanted — needed — that damn mirror.
THEN
"Hush," a voice whispered gently by my ear.
Emma's voice.
I gave a show of calming down and went quiet — still tense and ready. My eyes darted around, taking everything in. It was still night — no sign of the rising sun — and everything was quiet. I could see the light shadows the trees cast by the dwindling fire.
She gently removed her hand from my mouth and released her steady hold on my shoulder.
I instantly pulled back my covers and rolled out of the bedding and stood — away from Emma.
I could hear my heart beating in my ears from the shock of being woken up so suddenly. And horribly.
She was still crouched beside my bed, one hand pressed against the trunk of a tree for balance. Her eyes were wide and her head was cocked slightly to the side, long brown hair pulled behind an ear.
Emma caught my questioning gaze and slowly stood up, placing a finger to her lips. With a start, I realised that she held a large knife in her right hand. I instinctively took another step away from her.
I nearly jumped out of my skin when I heard the sudden sharp call of a bird from overhead, and then our little campsite erupted into utter chaos.
Emma moved faster than I could follow, charging at me, knife aimed right at my chest.
She pushed me to the side with a shrill shout.
I felt the air rush out of me as I hit the ground; hip first. I rolled onto my back — clutching at my side in pain.
She didn't stab you. You're fine. Get up!
It took me a second longer to realise the roaring in my ears wasn't my heart beating — but something else entirely.
"Run!" Emma shrill shout of warning cut through everything else. There was real panic in her voice.
I pushed up off the ground into a kneeling position, chest heaving in ragged breaths.
Suddenly I understood what the roaring had come from.
It was something out of a nightmare. A green-scaled… thing, covered in long barbs.
In its huge clawed hand, the thing held Emma off the ground by her throat, her toes barely grazing the floor as she kicked frantically. The sharp claws where almost as long as my forearms. It towered above her, almost ten foot tall.
This wasn't another LARPer. It definitely wasn't a middle-aged man in a onesie. This thing was real.
Emma was struggling against it — her feet flailing and kicking against its chest — but her desperate efforts didn't seem to register with it.
A long barbed tail flicked out from behind the thing and encircled Emma's waist in a horrible hug. She screamed as the long barbs along the tail sunk easily into her sides.
I fell backwards, crawling on my back away from them and towards the darkness of the tree lining.
It tightened its grip on her, and Emma's screams died off suddenly, head lolling towards her chest. I heard the birds in the trees above us, calling out to each other as they escaped into the night.
I could just make out the dark patches of blood as they started soaking into her white shirt, where its tail held her waist. The thing laughed, a wet and deep chuckle that shook its wiry shoulders.
Still laughing, it lowered its face down to Emma's, its flat nose flaring as it breathed deeply. It pulled back its lips in a horrible snear, revealing rows of pointed teeth.
Emma's knife fell from her loose fingers and hit the ground with a soft thunk. The last of the fire's light showed me the gleam of something wet on it. She'd hurt it.
It didn't care.
Suddenly, the things fiery yellow eyes caught mine over Emma's shoulder. I realised I'd stopped. I gasped in a breath, frozen to the spot. I was unable to flee. Unable to defend myself. Totally useless.
Another shrill call of a bird and a blur of black swooped at the things head.
The horrible barbed monster waved its free arm disinterestedly as if shooing a fly. Seconds later, the giant bird came in for another sweep at the things head. This time the bird's talons latched onto the thing's scaled face, barbs and all.
The monster roared, and the bird gave a horrible cry of pain. With one, two frantic beats of its wings, it retreated back into the darkness above us.
The thing locked eyes with me again, dropping Emma's still body at its feet. She fell in a limp heap — completely still.
This isn't happening.
I redoubled my efforts, dragging myself away from the horror before me — pushing through the paralysing fear that had overwhelmed me earlier. My arms shook under my weight.
The thing's eyes never left my own, as it stepped over Emma, towards me. The shadows played tricks, making the barbs that covered its body appear to shift and move.
I could see the gleam of blood on its claws. Emma's blood.
Suddenly, it was towering above me, blocking out the fire's dying light.
My back came flush with a tree and I stopped, heaving in a horrified sob.
It chuckled again — an evil sound that seemed to echo all around me.
I squeezed my eyes shut, wincing as I pulled my back flush with the tree's bark — as far away from it as I could be. I turned my head away and felt the thing's warm breath on my cheek.
I grasped desperately at the ring on my necklace, rubbing the surface one final time.
This isn't real. It's all a dream.
I felt the cold bark on my cheek and knew that I was wrong.
I waited for the pain to come, aware with sudden clarity that I was about to die.
I waited, but the pain didn't come. There was only the pounding of my heart and the steady puffs of the thing before me. I opened a tentative eye and froze.
It was right in front of me, bent down so we were face-to-face. Its giant yellow eyes narrowed and I smelt something rotten on it's breath. It reached out with a long arm, digging its claws into the tree right above my head.
I shrieked at its sudden movement, sharp and quick — before falling silent.
I couldn't see anything human in its eyes, but I could see a deeper intelligence than it's appearance hinted at — as its fiery yellow eyes took me in. As it considered me.
It gave me one final once over, and then with a deep huff, turned away — its tail whipping around behind it like an irate feral animal.
I still couldn't bring myself to stand up and run. So I watched. I waited.
A trick?
It waved a clawed arm, and the space in front of it seemed to warp and darken.
I could see the knife forgotten on the forest ground between us — stained black with its blood. I contemplated arming myself, but the thought was gone with the next horrible shake of my body.
The darkness in front of the thing grew until there was a disk of total blackness — as tall and wide as it was — right before it. The edges of the black disk seemed to glow yellow, sparks flying from the edges.
It stepped into the black disk, without another glance in my direction, and then it completely disappeared.
Its blood covered tail was the last thing I saw, before the black disk shrunk out of existence.
And then everything was silent.
I remained huddled against the tree, tears dripping silently from my chin, as I watched the empty space that the thing had occupied only moments before.
I waited for the group of laughing LARPers to come out of the tree line and tell me it was all a horrible joke.
I waited for my heart to stop pounding in my ears.
I waited for it to return and finish me off.
It didn't come back.
I don't know how long I watched the space for any sign of its return, breath halted between one and the next — jumping at every little sound as the forest slowly returned to life around me.
I finally jolted back into horrible stark awareness as my phone burst to life beside me in a flash of wonderful synthetic light.
I dove for the small device, only to see the alarm had gone off.
Time to wake up.
I turned off the alarm, but everything around me remained.
The fire was long dead — a thin trail of smoke rising from the remaining coals — and the sky was a light grey by the time I heaved in a great sob and properly cried, letting my eyes fall on Emma's crumpled body. She was on her side, her back to me and her legs stretched out at uncomfortable angles.
She still hadn't moved from where she'd fallen. From where that monster had dropped her lifeless body.
With a pit in my stomach, I crawled slowly to her on shaking arms, watching for any sign of life — knowing already that I wouldn't find any.
"It's gone, Emma," I assured us both, my voice a hesitant whisper.
When I was by her side, I stopped with a hand hovering over her shoulder. I don't know what I was waiting for.
Holding my breath, I placed my hand on her shoulder and rolled her onto her back — she was heavier than she looked.
With a gasp, I pulled away when I saw her eyes. Sparkling and kind only yesterday — they were now glazed and unseeing, her face frozen in a look of pure fear.
Her dead eyes reflected the bird of prey as it circled above us, it's pain-filled cry carrying down through the trees and sending shivers up my spine.
NOTEBOOK EXTRACT
There's a full page taken up by a single illustration in Jane's more rushed style.
It's a massive humanoid, hunched over with blood on its clawed hands. Barbs cover its entire body, bar its white stomach, and sharp teeth drip with saliva in a feral smile. Jane's gone to the effort of finding a yellow pencil to colour the eyes.
A devil? This theory is the only text on the page, scribbled at the bottom of the image.